A couple of years ago I had an actual Christmas wreath making lesson from an actual professional wreath maker (read: florist). They are really easy to make and sooooo much cheaper than buying, it just takes a teeny bit of gathering and your door will be festive before you know it.

First off, gather your equipment. A polystyrene wreath (or posy pad) will allow you to water your wreath to keep it perky. This one was £4 from Hobbycraft. A pair of secateurs will also help deal with any tricky branches. Finally you need the fun part, the decorations. I gathered some greens on a walk and added in some cinnamon sticks, dried orange and candy canes. Next add your greenery to the wreath. Starting on the outside, add some foliage diagonally so that it lies smoothly all around the circle. Repeat on the inside of the circle and then cover the front of the wreath in a similar way. This part takes all the effort to make sure that none of the wreath is showing.

Finally, add the pretty parts! I created little hooks with the smaller branches I’d gathered to hang the oranges, cinnamon, candy canes and baubles from. Wrapping wire around them and pinning this in can also attach them sturdily. Give your wreath a little water and allow the water to be absorbed before hanging on your door. Then you’re done!

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Halloween has crept up on me this year and my instagram feed is making me feel all left out. I love a bit of Halloween, but I don’t really want to spend a fortune on decorations which I then have to find somewhere to store all year. After a little bit of Pinterest inspiration I realised it’s not that hard to make a few extra spooky decorations. These are all really easy halloween decorations to whip up and most of the things I needed were already around the house (so they’re cheap too, woohoo!).

Trick or Treat bunting

The first was to update some Happy Birthday bunting, which has managed to stay up since my birthday (in August…). Now it’s the end of October, I cut triangles out of newspaper and using my trusty old black sharpie, turned Happy Birthday into Trick or Treat. Easy and really cheap too. I attached the newspaper with blu tac so that they’ll peel off without damaging the bunting underneath, which is all ready for the next birthday.

Stud Skull

I love this skull canvas, which is made just by adding brass tacks. All I did was sketch out the picture I wanted to create, add the tacks around the edge, then fill in the middle. This used around 300 tacks, which came to a grand total of £1.50, plus the cost of the canvas (£1.25). So cheap that I’m happy to make it just for Halloween, but I actually think I love it enough to keep it for much longer.

Spooky picture frame

This is a particularly easy Halloween decoration, made entirely of recycled things around the house. This photo frame normally contains photos (as you would expect), but is temporarily home to some spooky sketches. In the spirit of recycling, I cut up old envelopes and cut the backs to fit the photo frames. I aged the paper by painting it with coffee and, once it had dried, I drew some Halloween images and boom, easy Halloween decoration. A few days after Halloween, my normal photos can go back in and the pictures can be recycled so no finding extra storage for this.

Step one

Gather your stuff! You’ll need a mirror, blackboard paint, masking tape, paint brushes (one big one and one little one) and some chalk for later. Blackboard paint is really easy to find, ours was from B&Q and cost £6.98.

Step two

As you don’t want to get paint all over that lovely frame, protect it with some carefully applied masking tape. Then, using your little brush, apply your paint around the edges.

Step three

Then, get your big brush and apply your paint. The first coat looks a bit rubbish, but wait at least two hours before cracking on with the next one. Mine took four coats to get it ready. Alternate the direction that your coats go in to avoid too many ridges.

Step four

Once your paint has totally dried, score the edges to prevent any peeling when you lift the masking tape. Peel off your masking tape and unveil your new blackboard wonder. Decorate with whatever you like – we put ours up above our drinks area with some cocktail ideas.

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Despite moving into our flat a year ago, we still have a distinct lack of anything on the walls. My normal oracle (pinterest) had loads of ideas, including a lot of simple glittery wall art. Here’s my version.

Supplies

Canvas

PVA glue (I don’t think the kind is too important, just the kind you used to get in school)

Two paint brushes – one fine and one slightly larger, depending on the shapes you’re drawing. I also had a third softer brush for dusting away rogue pieces of glitter.

Pot of loose glitter

Sealant spray. Or hairspray if you forget to buy sealant spray and are too impatient to wait until you have some. I can confirm that hairspray works perfectly well.

Step one: sketch

Draw out whatever design you’d like on your canvas. You don’t need to be too precious because you’ll be glittering all over it in a minute so just make sure you get the shapes and proportions right more than anything. I originally tried a much more complicated design but as you can’t pick out all that much detail in glitter, I realised simple is much better.

Step two: glue

Use your finer paint brush to paint glue around the edges of your sketches and then fill in any larger shapes with the bigger brush. I like to do this in stages because I get all paranoid that the glue will lose all its stickiness, but you could probably paint most of your shapes in one go if you fancy yourself as pretty nifty with a paintbrush.

Step three: SPRINKLE!

Best part – generously sprinkle glitter all over your glue covered drawings until you have an even layer on it. Leave it for about thirty minutes to get good and settled on there.

Step four: reveal your masterpiece

After you have shaken the excess glitter from your print, your shiny new wall art will be revealed. Once you’ve tidied up any rogue edges, give it a quick spray with sealant (or hairspray) and you’re done.